[turrican]

May also happens to be the month construction began on one of EWR’s two commonly used runways (though they do have a smaller third runway). This severely reduced the amount of traffic the airport could handle and EWR attempted to keep operating the same amount of scheduled flights as usual, it was a real mess.

[scottjg]

runway construction is only part of the story, i think. in May, there was a number of complete ATC meltdowns causing ground stops. if you look at the stats, the majority of delays at newark in May are attributed to ATC.

personally, i was on a flight in May from SFO to EWR and my flight flew 2h30m towards Newark, then back to SFO when EWR stopped accepting landings: https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/united-flight-that-was...

granted this was an especially egregious situation and not the norm, but it feels like these types of issues are on the rise based on my anecdotal experience. there were a number of full ground stops at newark due to ATC in the weeks after this. it was national news.